Get Protected Today

Target to Pay $18.5 Million in Largest Data Breach Settlement

Target is paying out the largest data breach settlement from a hack in 2013, but consumers are still at risk. Are you doing everything you can to protect your credit and debit card information?

The retailer will have to cough up the money to 47 states and the District of Columbia as part of a legal settlement concerning the 2013 cyber breach that affected more than 41 million of the company’s customer payment card accounts. The breach also compromised the contact information of more than 60 million of Target’s customers.

The states determined that the cyber attackers gained access to Target’s computer network through credentials stolen from a third-party vendor in November 2013.

Best Deal

Celebrate the Holiday Season with 30% Off!

Hackers work in overdrive during the holidays. Stay safe while shopping online with VIPRE Antivirus Software and save 30%.

The attackers used the credentials to exploit weaknesses in Target’s system, gained access to a customer service database, installed malware on the system and captured full names, phone numbers, email addresses, payment card numbers, credit card verification codes and other sensitive data.

“Companies across sectors should be taking their data security policies and procedures seriously,” said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen in a statement. “Not doing so potentially exposes sensitive client and consumer information to hackers.”

Target previously provided free credit monitoring services for consumers affected by the breach. As part of its $10 million class-action lawsuit settlement in 2015, the retailer agreed to pay up to $10,000 to consumers who could prove they suffered losses from the data breach.

The terms of the agreement require the retailer to adhere to three basic mandates:

Develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program

Segregate cardholder data from the rest of the network

Take steps to control network access, including password rotation policies and two-factor authentication.

3 Ways to Protect Your Credit and Debit Card Information

While there is no magic bullet for keeping your credit and debit card information entirely safe from hackers, there are some strong options you can take to protect your data and dollars.

Option 1: Use just one card for online payments and keep the spending limit on that account as low as possible. If it is a debit card, you can keep funds to a minimum and transfer money to the account as you need it. When you have just one card for online shopping it is easy to monitor your transactions for unusual activity.

Option 2: Buy a prepaid credit card for online shopping. This is another way to keep your online shopping separate from your retail shopping. A prepaid card allows you to load a fixed amount of money when you buy it. The big advantage of this kind of card is that even if the card’s details are compromised somewhere along the chain, there is a limit to the amount of money that can be stolen.

Some banks let you generate a virtual credit card number when you make online purchases. This is often a single-use number that you can enter instead of your regular credit card number.

Option 3: Activate your credit card’s added layer of security. The layer is usually not enabled by default, so you will have to check into it.

MasterCard has a service called SecureCode, which is a private code that you enter every time you make a transaction on a supported site. The code is never disclosed to a retailer.

Visa’s service is Verified by Visa, which provides a personal message that greets you when you are making a transaction, as well as a password to authorize a purchase.

As you probably know, MasterCard and Visa do not hold card users liable for fraudulent transactions.

Some banks have their own verification systems that work instead of SecureCode and Verified by Visa. A common service of such banks is sending customers a one-time PIN or security code to their phones or computers as a second layer of authorization for transactions.

Contact your bank or financial institution to find out what protections they may offer.